Do vehicles park at campsites?

[gl0ww]

I'm a virgin with a dumb question... Are the cars parked on your campsite? I'm burning solo. So, I'd like to know if I could rent a pickup and camp out of the bed. Is that a thing??

[digital]

I'm a virgin with a dumb question... Are the cars parked on your campsite? I'm burning solo. So, I'd like to know if I could rent a pickup and camp out of the bed. Is that a thing??

Sure is! And yes, with the exception of walk-in camping cars are parked at the campsite!

[theCryptofishist]

Yes, you can. Detail the hell out of that thing when you take it off the playa and be sure to power wash the engine compartment and under carriage.
You want the next newby to be able to rent a truck to.
(There's a whole lot more to be said, and I hope I got the main points right.)

[some seeing eye]

Cars are almost always parked in the camp. They are good for locking valuables/can't be lost items in.

There are high resolution aerial/satellite pictures you can search for and innumerable photos of the streetscape of 'black rock city'.

There is plenty of fascinating reading on the burningman.org website under preparation.

[EmilyD]

Parked cars/trucks are also good for attaching shadecloth/shade structures to.

[Savannah]

I'm a virgin with a dumb question... Are the cars parked on your campsite? I'm burning solo. So, I'd like to know if I could rent a pickup and camp out of the bed. Is that a thing??

There are tents made to fit in the bed of a pickup truck (don't camp in an open bed, if that's what you mean). You can also tie some jungle netting or a tarp off the top of a pickup truck, although without some supplementary poles or something--or the top of another truck to tie it to--the footprint of your shade won't be very big.

I've known people who slept in cargo vans, and tied shade off of those. That's a little bigger.

You could use either a pickup truck OR a cargo van to transport the materials for a monkey hut shade. Monkey huts are awesome.

Any further questions about this can go in the preparation forum . . .

[FIGJAM]

[Doctor VonBacon]

Something like this? :

From the fine people that make Kodiak tents (Kodiak Tents are excellent, but expensive. I've never used their truck tent)...

http://www.kodiakcanvas.com/canvas-truck-tent-8-ft/

[trilobyte]

I'm splitting this conversation into a new thread in Shelter & Camping (it drifted from a conversation in the Ticketing Discussion forum).

[Joeln]

Here's a pic of my camp showing neighbor groups of all sizes. Notice the ad-hoc parking lot that formed in the upper right.

[Elderberry]

I guess that answers the question. (A picture is worth a thousand words (or posts in this case).

[maladroit]

Indeed...the photo does a great job explaining lots of questions that appear from time to time:

• Where do you park
• How much space do you get
• Is it worth trying to claim an area for people arriving later in the week
• Is a shade structure really necessary
• How big is a standard sized monkeyhut
• Should I bring a bike
• How much space does a hexayurt need
• Where are the porta potties
• Should I camp in this open space next to the porta potties
• Do people camp in tents or RVs
• How easy will it be to find my friend
• Are there roads

[Eric]

Indeed...the photo does a great job explaining lots of questions that appear from time to time:

You forgot:

• Will people hate me if I bring an RV
• How do I block off my camps private space
• How do I lay out my camp?

[maladroit]

Maybe we should photoshop a little bit of fire coming out of some of the RVs.

[robbidobbs]

I just love how the porta potty bank becomes a parking lot. Just warms my cockles when I see that.

[Ano]

I've found that it kind of varies.

In general, you can park anywhere at Burning Man, within city limits. You can't park your car on the open playa, and you can't park your car at the gate or greeters... However, space varies from place to place.

If you're in a placed camp on A-G streets, and your camp is large, you might have to park your car outside of camp. Some camps are very much stressed for space, and this will usually be coordinated with the camp beforehand, or on-playa. As in the screenshot above, people tend to turn the areas immediately around the porto-potties into parking lots, because those porto-potties smell like nuclear-asshole-shavings within a twenty-ish foot radius on Tuesday.

If you and a few friends are rolling in without any specific plans, you can definitely park your car at your camp site. If you want a bit more room in your camp, you can opt to park your car elsewhere if you really want to, but I haven't found a reason for it. The past four years I've gone, I've always parked locally. It's a great place to keep your valuables, and it's great to have the option of storing things inside the car.

As for your specific question - going in solo, safe to park in camp, camp in the truck bed - all of that is fine! You can totally do that and have a great time.

[maladroit]

There are stories floating around about hilarious camping spot mishaps. I recall one about a bleary-eyed burner waking up on Monday to find a couple busily setting up camp in the actual middle of an intersection.

[Ano]

Ah, durrrrr, good point, I can't believe I didn't say that.

Correction to my post - you can park most anywhere within city limits, that is not a road, open playa, intersection, or walk-in-camping.

[maladroit]

I would add that if you simply observe what everyone else is doing, almost everything will become crystal clear. There is an order to the madness. And if you get completely confused, if you stop by my camp and ask for some advice, I will absolutely put down whatever I'm doing and come over to chat for a few minutes, and most burners will be happy to do the same.

[dragonpilot]

There are stories floating around about hilarious camping spot mishaps. I recall one about a bleary-eyed burner waking up on Monday to find a couple busily setting up camp in the actual middle of an intersection.

Variation: After getting inside perimeter at 2 AM, exhausted, we parked in an open spot to sleep. At daybreak banging on the hood by a water truck driver showed us parked in the middle of a road. We moved...but not before brewing morning coffee.

[GreyCoyote]

I would add that if you simply observe what everyone else is doing, almost everything will become crystal clear. There is an order to the madness. And if you get completely confused, if you stop by my camp and ask for some advice, I will absolutely put down whatever I'm doing and come over to SCREAM AT YOU for a few minutes, and most burners will be happy to do the same.

Fixed that for ya.

BTW: where is BBadger these days?

[maladroit]

Well, yeah...no conversation with new burners would be complete without "Do you know who I am?" and yelling a number that is at least twice the actual number of years you've been going.